A local farm in Qatar has developed a high tech hydroponics system, which can produce several types of fruits and organic vegetables to aid the country achieve food security. Introducing the same, Nasser Ahmed al-Khalaf, managing director at Agrico said that they modified many processes of hydroponics farming to meet the growing demand of organic fresh food products in Qatar.

Privately owned in Qatar, Agrico is a local agricultural development company established in 2011 to help Qatar achieve food security. It operates a 12 hectare (120,000 sqm) organic farm in Al Khor. Al-Khalaf shared that European, Asian, or Western people have developed systems suitable to their environments. Those systems do not effectively function in the environment of Qatar, and hence they have developed their own systems capable of functioning well in their environment.

Agrico plans to increase their production and variety of products

Al-Khalaf added that in cold regions such as Europe have only heating systems for their farms. However, farms in Qatar need cooling systems too, which they have developed. These cooling systems have the ability to bring down the temperature to 20, 18, or even 16 degree Celsius, whichever suits the development of crops. He further shared that during summer, they can produce about 6 tons of vegetables every day, which is 30% less than production in winter. They are trying to increase their production rate in the future. Al-Khalaf added that by providing the right amount of water, right fertilizer, right amount of light, and right temperature, anything can be grown. Agrico has started growing five types of fruits, including leman and papaya. They are going to soon produce herbs, fresh leaf, and root crops such as mint, basil, green onion, parsley, and coriander.